Searches For Feather Boas Are Spiking – Are They The Accessory 2021 Needs?

I’m going to assume that the last time (if, that is, there was ever a time) you wore a feather boa it involved a) fancy dress, b) a festival, c) a hen do. But that was before the 2021 Grammy Awards and the holy trinity of Gucci boas – one mint, one lilac, one black – in which Harry Stylesstole the show.

Now, thanks to the superlatively stylish Mr Styles, we are all suddenly very interested in the merits of the boa. Since the Grammys, Google searches have shot up 2,500%. I can’t imagine there’s that many hen dos happening this March.

So, why now? What is it about the feather boa that has struck a chord? In a year when many of us have done a lot of wardrobe soul searching, and reassessed the difference between ‘want’ and ‘need’, the boa seems like a worthy candidate for the last thing we should be buying.

But perhaps it is the pure frippery of the fluffy boa that makes it so appealing, especially now. The unapologetically OTT, camp glamour of it is a restorative tonic after a year that has given us so little to smile about. We haven’t had an excuse to dress up – not properly – for 12 months now. We’re bored. Donning a boa, flamboyantly slinging it over one shoulder or draping it in the crook of your arms, says you’re ready to get back out there again.

And while the boa might signal a return to the showmanship of out-out dressing, it doesn’t require any of the heavy-lifting that, say, super high heels do. We’ve all been swaddled in the delights (and drudgery) of comfortable clothes for months on end, and this is perfect way to ease yourself back into glamour.

There’s something deliciously decadent, too, about the impracticality of the feather boa. They exist for no other reason than fun. One friend tells me that 20 years ago, after a bad breakup, she chose to mend her broken heart by spending $200 on a feather boa. She loved it because it was, in her words, ‘the ultimate accessory’. Its purpose was nothing more than adornment, it promised nothing less than joy for joy’s sake. If there’s a better reason than that to bag a boa now, then I’m not sure what it is.